I'll say sorry in advance for what I'm going to do here...


Jill agreed to cover the north face of the tree, Aria in the west, and Kali in the east, while Lauren remained standing by Thalia's Pine. Peleus had stopped breathing fire as soon as she walked closer to the Fleece.

The dragon looked at her as if she had gone mad. "What the Hades are you doing?" it was probably thinking. "I'm trying to melt this damned frost and save the Camp here. Get out of my way!"

But Lauren's gut was telling her to stay. The accumulated frost on the Fleece remained as steely as ever. She scowled.

In her hand, her mysterious, unnamed sword teemed with power. It was tugging at her arm again, wanting to fight, wanting to kill more monsters. That wasn't Lauren's primary objective. She had to find a way to melt the frost; otherwise the monsters would just keep coming, and eventually, the Camp would fall. She couldn't let that happen. And for some reason, she had a feeling that melting the frost was her job.

Photokinesis was a rare power, even for the children of Apollo. No camper in written history had ever been able to summon or manipulate light in any way. Only gods were known to be able to do that. Lauren looked down at her hands and thought that perhaps she could somehow do what others couldn't.

With a sliver of doubt, she brought her left hand up and placed it on the Fleece. The ice bit at her skin, but she did her best to ignore it. She focused purely on summoning heat or light—anything, really—into her hands. Hoped for nothing short of a miracle.

Nothing happened.

She huffed. Maybe her luck had run out after all.

And then suddenly she remembered something.

"Jill?" she called over her shoulder, the panic rising in her chest.

"Yeah?" Jill replied after a beat, distracted.

"Where is the boy Ethan?"

"Not sure." She was interrupted by the sharp clang of blades. "Last I checked, Chiron had put Annabeth on bodyguard duty."

Some of the panic ebbed. If Lauren had to make a list of the people she could completely trust with Ethan's life, Annabeth would be in it without a doubt. She was strong, gritty, tactful and intelligent. And she would have been part of Artemis' ranks, if Percy Jackson hadn't gotten to her heart first. A stubborn boy, but he had proved himself to the gods countless times. It was enough for Lauren to form a grudging sort of respect for him.

The sword in her hand resumed pulling in a more persistent manner. Curious, and perhaps even slightly irked, Lauren allowed it to jerk her arm forward. Surprisingly, it settled on the Fleece, the blade touching the magical, golden hide. For the second time that day, warmth travelled down her arm and into the sword.

As soon as this happened, flakes of ice started peeling away from the Fleece. She grinned in delight. Beside her, Peleus roared, before lumbering down the knoll and into camp to help with the fighting.

"The ice is melting," she yelled.

"Thank the gods!" Kali said from the other side of the tree, smiling brightly even as she fought with an empousa. "Keep doing what you're doing, cap'n!" Her poor impression of a pirate sent a light chuckle up Lauren's throat.

As if responding to her glee, a new wave of heat rushed into the blade, resulting in one-fourth of the frost melting off the Fleece. It was slow but sure work. She could stay as she was until all the ice was gone. She had her Hunters guarding her back, anyway. Everything seemed to be going right, for once.

And then it didn't.

Lauren watched as Kali switched positions with the empousa, so that she was facing the camp and away from the forest. She watched as she continued fighting even as the sound of an arrow whistling through the air reached her ears.

Unable to do anything, Lauren watched as an arrow shaft emerged from Kali's shoulder.

Kali's body stilled. Her chest heaved. From afar, Lauren could see the tremors racking through her. Death quakes. And then Kali brandished her sword, parrying the empousa's blow, and then thrust it into the monster's stomach. Just as the empousa was disintegrating, another arrow whistled through the air and buried itself into Kali's stomach.

Once again, the Hunter stilled. Red blossomed from her wounds and dirtied her white parka.

After a moment, she turned and met Lauren's eyes. And Lauren could do nothing but watch as another arrow sprouted from her chest. Her body shook one last time before she collapsed onto the ground.

A scream pierced the air. Lauren couldn't be sure whether it was hers. Her body felt cold. All the years of watching Kali's pointless shenanigans, hearing her light peals of laughter, was brought forth in her mind.

That girl she knew was gone now. Lifeless and lying on the ground. Killed by precisely three arrows.

Below, things had gotten worse. The remaining Laistrygonians had reached the climbing wall and were now chucking half-solid balls of lava at the camp's structures. Lauren watched as Iron Man flew by one giant and shot an energy blast right at its face.

The Laistrygonian curled its fingers around a lava ball and hurled it at Stark with such force that he didn't even have time to completely evade it. The sarsen caught his shoulder and he fell out of the sky.

The rabid sounds of wolves caught Lauren's attention. Feeling numb, she craned her neck and saw an entire pack of the beasts racing up the hill. Aria's face was streaked with tears and contorted in rage as she shot the wolves down one by one, but there were too many of them.

They reached her before she could eradicate them. They pinned her to the ground and tore at her before Lauren's eyes.

Aria's screams continued for several seconds before it cut off with a wet, gurgling sound.

Horror washed over Lauren. Her arm shook so badly that the tremors travelled down the sword in her hand as well. The heat in her slowly disappeared. Coldness overtook her veins. Yet somehow, her sword kept on, droning as it tried to subdue the ice that was gradually coating the Fleece once more.

"Fall back!" Chiron bellowed from the foot of the hill. Campers started running past him, including Jason and Piper. Barton trailed behind, shooting down strays with his arrows. Lauren could see that his quiver was almost empty.

Chiron continued waving his arms to whoever was still in the woods. "Everyone, fall back! To camp! Fall back!"

Several more demigods, and a few Hunters, sprinted past him to seek refuge in the camp. Jason trailed behind them, running for all he was worth. Lauren didn't see Jill among their ranks.

The trees rustled. Among the thin branches, Lauren could just make out the heads of several more Laistrygonian Giants. But apart from their heavy footfalls, there was the slithering of more dracaenae, the barks of more wolves, and more barely human footsteps of empousai.

Lauren hadn't expected a man to emerge from the forest.

He resembled Thor in many ways. As the haze disappeared from her eyes, Lauren noticed that his hair was considerably shorter than Thor's—cropped and spiked. His frame was sturdy and wide, and he had the beginnings of stubble on his jaw.

He wore a pair of regular brown trousers, his feet covered by riding boots. A dark blue tunic travelled until his upper thighs. A fur cloak hung around his wide-set shoulders, and a round shield was strapped onto his back.

In one hand, he held a broadsword. In the other, he held nothing. For it was a stump of skin not capable of keeping anything aloft.

His minions followed behind him. Lauren's heart dropped when she saw one Laistrygonian Giant carrying Jill by her hair.

Jill yelled and thrashed, but the giant wouldn't let go.

"Jill?" Lauren whispered. Her stomach lurched.

Jill's eyes found hers and her thrashing renewed. "LAUREN! HELP!"

Lauren stared on helplessly. She couldn't let go of her sword; the frost needed to thaw off of the Fleece. Not able to think of anything else, she used her free hand to throw an arrow towards the giant that had Jill. The shaft buried itself into its shoulder, but that didn't faze it in the slightest.

The man—the one leading the attack—looked at Lauren with a malicious smile inching up his face. He gestured to the ground in front of him.

With a wordless grunt, the Laistrygonian threw Jill onto the ground. She immediately curled and pulled a knife from the confines of her boot. She scrambled to her feet and quickly killed the closest dracaena, followed by another, and then another.

Such valiance couldn't be taught. Not even by Artemis.

Jill had just dispatched with a particularly noisy empousa before the man stepped in. He backhanded her with such force that she flew to the side of the knoll, where she landed on her back. The man walked up to her with wide strides.

Before she could even raise her arm, he had run her through with his sword.

The first tear fell. Lauren sobbed. It all became too much for her; the sword fell from her hand and ice covered the Fleece once more. Any willpower she had left disappeared as the life went out of Jill's body.

The man pulled his sword out of Jill's stomach with a disgusting squelch and wiped the blade on his coat.

"I am Tyr, here to deliver news from Khione and the general of the Jotunn army, Andleut Laufeyson," he said, and his voice echoed all throughout the vicinity, as loud as if he was speaking through a megaphone. "Stand down now and we will spare your lives until Orion comes to reap his vengeance; fight us and you all will die an early death." He looked directly at Lauren and the echoing quality in his voice disappeared. "And what a waste that would be."

Rage filled her.

She leaned down and picked up her sword again—and that singular emotion made the blade start humming with power again. She began walking down the hill with a single objective in mind: kill Tyr. But with a single sentence, he shattered her resolve once more:

"If you attack me, I will kill everyone else that you care about and make you watch as they scream."

She knew that he could very well do just that. With the help of Khione and the Frost Giants, it could be as easy as raising a hand. If she hadn't been so sure about that, she wouldn't have dropped her sword arm to her side, letting it hang limp.

The fight left her body.

Not knowing what else to do, she just turned around and strode down the hill and into the camp.

Her thoughts went to the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents still in the jet; to Tony, whose suit had gotten damaged; to Romanoff, who had been fighting monsters with only bullets; to Barton, who she had learned to trust so deeply that it frightened her.

Agent Hill had said that the rest of the Avengers were on their way, and maybe even they could help with defeating Tyr—and that was a big maybe. But where were they?

The entire camp had heard Tyr's declaration. When Lauren had gotten away from the one-handed god, everyone was gathered by the front of the Big House. So many of them had fallen… Lauren felt like crying, but she knew that she had to keep her game face on.

"Lauren!"

It was a voice she didn't immediately recognize, for she hadn't heard it in a while, but there was no doubt about who it was.

Ethan stepped out of the crowd of demigods and very quickly made his way towards her. Behind him were Annabeth and Percy, and then Agent Barton.

Lauren hadn't been expecting the bear hug Ethan attacked her with. He was stronger and heavier than she last remembered. After allowing a few moments of the contact, she pushed him away. It wasn't the time.

"So it really was Tyr," said Annabeth. "He let Khione onto Jotunheim."

Lauren shook her head grimly. "It doesn't matter now."

"We can still keep fighting," Ethan argued.

"He's right," Percy agreed. "The camp's dealt with worse."

"Not like this," said Lauren. "Not right now."

A look of understanding flashed across Percy's face. It was quickly replaced with hostility when he raised his eyes to the top of Half-Blood Hill. There, Tyr stood with his new wave of enemies.

Lauren felt a chilly silence settle over the camp. Someone came to stand beside her. At first, she thought it was Ethan, and then she came to realize that it was Barton. His presence offered her little comfort.

"I'm sure you're all wondering why I'm here today," Tyr said, looking down at them like they were some new specimens he had just discovered under a rock. "But I can tell you right now that I've never been very far. Hiding, yes, but quite in plain sight. Your mortal agencies didn't know what they were looking for." He grinned. "I have been the one organizing the attacks on your precious camp—I am the author of all your pain. With a little help from Khione, of course. But that still doesn't answer the question as to why I'm here, does it?"

Leisurely, he walked down the knoll. His minions formed a line at the top, blocking out any escape. Lauren glared at each of their smug faces. She wanted nothing more than to put an end to this hostage situation of theirs, but that would lead to the deaths of more demigods, more Hunters. She didn't think she could take any more burden on her shoulders.

"By now, I suppose you've all heard of the prophecies. Two spoken at the same day—quite a rarity, is it not?" said Tyr. "The first spoke of the return of Orion… while the other spoke of a quest for the Traust sword."

Lauren stiffened up. Her hand unconsciously clenched around the mystery sword's hilt. Now she knew what it was called. But now, she also knew that it bearing the symbol of Mjolnir wasn't a coincidence. It was special to the Norse—perhaps as special as Thor's hammer itself.

"And last night, Khione informed me that the Sporodreki, the defender of the Traust, had been killed. And the sword stolen…" He sneered and looked right at Lauren. "By a Hunter of Artemis."

She couldn't help the scowl that darkened her face. She wanted to kill him so badly.

"And I know for a fact that that Hunter is here, alive," Tyr continued. "So either she comes forward and gives the sword to me willingly, or I kill everyone here. Starting with the youngest."

Lauren very much believed that he would do that. From the Norse stories she remembered, none of the gods were very merciful. Not even Thor.

Still, she grasped onto the last shred of courage that she had left, and stared back at Tyr with the most of murderous look she could muster. "You can go to Hades."

He clucked his tongue. "Such colorful words for a young woman. You don't believe me? Perhaps I have to convince you."

Without warning, he plucked Ethan—who had been standing close behind her, clutching her shirt—and dragged him to his side.

"No!" Annabeth yelled as she tried to pull him back, but Tyr easily got him away from her reach.

He placed the stump of his wrist beneath Ethan's chin. "This one looks young," he said. "And if Khione had described him properly, this is the one that Artemis wants protected."

The look of pure terror on Ethan's face made Lauren feel uneasy, because she imagined she looked quite the same. It reminded her of just how inexperienced he was, how short a time he had spent in the Camp compared to others.

He was nodding his head. "Just give it to him," he said. "Lauren, just give it to him. I can't—I… I'm scared. Please, Lauren—"

"You're bluffing," Lauren said to Tyr.

He grinned. "Am I really?"

"I can see it on your face. You're—"

Tyr pushed Ethan's chin up with his stump of a hand. Then, he brought his sword up and slit an even line across Ethan's throat.